1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the importation of data from a source database to a target database. More particularly, the present invention relates to a data transfer interface for importing data from an existing information system having a source database to a new information system having a target database.
2. The Background
Many companies, such as telephone companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs), rely on subscriber management systems, such as those provided, for example, by Portal Software, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., and Solect Technology Group of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A subscriber management system enables companies to store and retrieve subscriber information, such as account type, personal information, password, and the like, when needed. Subscriber information is stored in one or more databases having a database schema and in a format compatible with one or more applications or components that use subscriber information. (A schema is the definition of an entire database).
The cost of entering and maintaining subscriber information in these systems is expensive, representing a sizable investment. Thus, many companies wishing to add a new component or system to their business enterprise often seek to leverage their subscriber information by integrating the new system with their subscriber management system. However, integrating new and old systems involves significant technical issues because the new system may use a database having a schema that differs from the existing database schema, data formats may be different, and there may be other differences as well.
Traditionally, companies have relied on systems integrators to resolve such compatibility issues but this increases integration costs, requires divulging sensitive subscriber information, business practices, and models to the systems integrators, affects the productivity of employees engaged in supporting the integration effort, and potentially compromises database securityxe2x80x94all without any guarantee that the integration effort will be successful.
Consequently, a need exists for a uniform scheme for importing data from an existing system to a new system which decreases the cost of integrating a new system that uses the imported data, reduces the need to reveal information used in the existing system, reduces the need to access the exiting system""s database, and avoids dependence on existing data formats.
A data transfer interface for importing data from a source system to a target system, including a source data adapter having an attribute definition transcriber for generating transcribed data, and a target data adapter having a data format converter for converting the transcribed data from a first format to a second format. The data transfer interface may include a data validator to ensure that the data selected for importation is valid before the data is transcribed. The source data adapter and the target data adapter may be configured for use with a communications architecture that allows the source data adapter and the target data adapter to receive and transmit user data as events on a data communications network.